It's Istanbul, Not Constantinople

As I boarded the Crazy Holidays bus to cross the border into Turkey, I settled into my seat to get ready to get a full night's rest. However, I forgot that we needed to go through customs so in the middle of the night, I stumbled off the bus to hang out in the Duty-Free store and then fell in and out of sleep the remaining hours into Istanbul. Prior to getting into Turkey, I asked Mehmet, my CS host in Athens who's originally from Istanbul, to teach me some Turkish and all I could remember was "tesek kurler" (in my head, it's "tashek cular") or thank you which wasn't going to do me much good upon arriving.

Settling in for the night... Kind of

Crossing the border!

Almost in Istanbul

After several mishaps with finding a safe CS host in Istanbul, Mehmet was able to ask his friend, Melih, who lives in the Asian side to host me so I was all set. Again, I didn't realize that when some potential CS hosts were telling me about the Asian side, I thought they meant a section of the city similar to a Chinatown but it was a literal Asian side and I learned that the city straddles the two continents. So anyway, from the little bit of information I had gathered, it seemed like it was fairly easy to go back and forth between the two sides of Istanbul so I wasn't too worried about that. I got in touch with Melih the previous day and got instructions for how to get to his place and they were pretty straightforward instructions so I left our conversation at that. I also figured it wouldn't be too difficult to get to his place with the help of my trusty mobile map but for the first time during all my travels so far, it failed me! When I got to the bus terminal, there were a bunch of other charter buses so I knew not the board any of them but when I looked at my phone, for some reason, I wasn't getting any types of internet access even though I had checked that I was going to get service in Turkey and my phone was indicating that I was connected to something. I tried not to freak out too much from my lack of sleep and this slight little bump in the road and reminded myself that I had made it a quarter of the way around the world so would be able to get myself out of this situation just the same so after wandering around a bit with my packs and trying to ignore men along the way calling out to me, I found the metro terminal. Unfortunately, to get through the turnstile, I needed to get these tokens and to get the tokens, I needed Turkish Lira coins and I didn't have any Turkish Lira whatsoever on me so I wandered yet again, this time around the terminal, asking people for the ATM. I'm not sure if it was because my tour guide from Thessaloniki told me that men in Turkey will look like they've never seen a woman before or if it was actually true but I felt hyper-aware of all the eyes on me. It might also be the fact that I clearly look foreign...
So finally finding the ATM, I wasn't sure what the exchange rate was but I figured a couple hundred Lira would suffice but since the ATM spit out large bills, I was still in the dilemma of getting the currency to coins to get some tokens. I went up to the service booth to ask for some change and the guys behind the booth were messing with me and I wasn't in the mood to retaliate but they did get me smaller bills which still wasn't great so finally, I figured I might as well eat something too so I bought some sort of flaky meat pasty and got the coins I needed. The nourishment was good for calming my brain and I finally got a metro token to try my hand at navigating the public transportation system. I showed the attendant where I was trying to go and he directed me onto one of the trains so I seemed to have somewhat of a good start on the metro.

I took a photo of the map to guide me

When I got off at the stop that I needed for this first metro, I followed some signs to get me to the bus I needed and again, had to get a token but I figured I'd try getting a single pass which seemed to work the same way (it cost the same anyway). Even though Melih had told me which bus to take, they seemed a little bit confusing with how they were marked so I had to double check with another attendant and hopped onto what I think he was indicating. Luckily I had pinned Melih's address on my map so I could still see the little blue dot showing me if I was getting closer or not. I was also lucky that I met someone who saw the lost look on my face and he recognized where I needed to go so he walked me close enough to the bus I needed to take and I continued on the right track. It was really cool to see the little blue dot on my map travel across the water into the Asian side actually and it's a little bit crazy to me that a lot of people living here just travel between two continents on a daily basis. Similar to what happened to me in Thessaloniki, I wasn't sure how close the bus was going to get to Melih's so I waited it out a bit before I saw it getting further and further so I got off before it got any further and I made the back trek to Melih's.

Crossing from Europe into Asia

About half an hour to 45 minutes later, I finally got to the address that Melih had given me but it looked like an auto shop so I finally gave in to making a phone call (I didn't want to pay extra for international calling). I wasn't sure if Melih would have attempted to message me at this point because I told him I was getting into Turkey around 7AM and it was already close to 10AM and I wasn't sure if he would have needed to be at work already but he did pick up the phone and handed it to his roommate, Onur, who spoke better English and I told him where I was so they were going to come down to get me. I'm glad I was in the right place though because I might have had a mini breakdown if I had found out that I had pinned the wrong address.
When I got into their place, I met their other roommate, Berk, and their friend who had stayed the night because they were all out partying the previous night for some sort of holiday. I'm glad it was still quite early in the morning so I messaged Deniz, Mehmet's roommate who was in Istanbul, before settling in for a nap despite the coffee drink Melih had given me. After much needed shuteye, I woke up to see that the guys were still hanging around so I chatted with them a bit before I had arranged to meet up with Deniz on the European side of the city. Melih was going somewhere too so he offered to drive me to the ferry and we stopped at this nice restaurant called Dönerci Celal Usta where I told him to order whatever and when I asked him what we were eating, I learned that it was iskender and künefe. Well, whatever it was, it was delicious. We topped it off with some sort of baklava which was practically drenched in syrup but it was delicious and I think there were pistachios in it which added a yummy flavor to it. We also had a really strong tea that I think is common in Turkey.

The view from my room

The mosque right next to their apartment complex

Such a cool city view

Lunchtime!

Iskender? Whatever it's called, it was delicious!

Turkish tea

Dessert

So sweet and delicious!

After a very delicious and filling lunch, Melih dropped me off at the ferry and I went on my way from Asia to Europe on a relatively short ride across the water. Yes, I took many, many photos as I crossed the water but just because it was still crazy to me how the city straddles two continents! I didn't necessarily know what I was taking photos of but I'd learn about it the next day. For now, they were just cool buildings to me. When I got to the European side, I waited around for Deniz for a bit and perused the souvenir shop with all the little different knickknacks. 

Ferry!

European side

Windy on the water

Getting closer to the European side

Seagulls just riding the wind

Made it to the other side

Funny souvenir

Sidenote: One of the things I love about the Couchsurfing community is that I can meet all these cool people in all these different places and even after I surf their couch or bed or cot or whatever, I have a new friend. That's what happened with Deniz because after I met him in Athens, we were able to meet up a week later in a completely different city and I had a tour guide for the day as well. So anyway, after finding Deniz in the crowd, we went off on our way. We passed by the first train gare in Turkey, saw some cool baklava display (I was more fascinated by it than Deniz) before getting to Gülhane parki and Deniz started springing all of his knowledge of the city on me. We walked through the park and then past the Ayasofya, what used to be a mosque but is not a museum while I learned about the Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine Period (lots of information about that). 

Still a working convenience stand - I believe it's the oldest in the city

We walked past many many many more mosques as well as the Cankurtaran which is an indefinitely closed railway station as we heard the resounding call of the prayer through all of the mosques. Since there were so many mosques throughout the center, it was echo upon echo of the prayer. This is also where I learned that people visit the mosque four times a day to prayer and it really shocked me because I didn't grow up in this type of religious culture so to see such devotion was a bit unusual. I also learned that one has to wash their hands, feet, and face before entering the mosque and women have to wear hijabs. Since I wasn't prepared to visit a mosque, not being dressed properly, I wasn't allowed to enter the mosque but looking at the structures on the outside still took my breathe away at the sheer enormity of them. 

Fountain of Ahmed III

So many mosques

These monuments are so amazing!

Somewhere along our meandering, we passed by Istanbul University and when we got to the entrance of the Grand Bazaar on Beyazit, it was closed due to Republic Day. It would have been cool to check out that marketplace but I wasn't totally bummed because there was a lot more to see. I wrote down Arap Camii and Rüstempasa which are the names of mosques but I'm not sure if I passed them or not. Deniz did take me to a few other alley marketplaces that had anything from animals everywhere, ready to be taken home, from puppies to birds to reptiles to bookshops with really old books that covered almost everything imaginable. There was another alley of stands that sold all kinds of spices and meats and lots of other goodies and it was so packed with people sifting through. We still pushed our way through to get to check out this coffee place that Deniz claimed to be really good and I checked out the storefront before we got to the water.

Istanbul University

Marketplace with lots of books

Grand Bazaar closed!

Glass mural

Another mosque

So many cute animals!

Come and get it!

Caught in the crowd

Finally finding some breathing space, we got to the edge of the European side and as everywhere else I've been to so far, bustling with people. There were crowds of people gathered around different food carts selling fried doughnuts and pickles and restaurant boats. Deniz had me try akin balik (fish and bread) and the fried doughnuts and they were pretty alright. The fried doughnuts were crunchier and sweeter than doughnuts I'm used to but it was good for a treat. As we walked away from all of the food, we walked towards the Tünel which would take us to Beyoglu, another district on the European side. We were in the old city of the European side and we were going to check out the nightlife in Taksim.

Pickles

Fish and bread floating food stand

Beyoglu?

Selfie with Deniz

Fried doughnuts

Waiting for the Tünel to get moving

 When we got over to Beyoglu, we went over to the Galata Tower but there was a line wrapped around the building so I figured with a good walk around the building, I could skip actually entering it. So wandering around Taksim, Deniz showed me some of his favorite bars to go to and we started at this chill Blues bar. I'm not exactly sure what beer I asked for but I think it was some sort of local brew. Since we got there relatively early, there were a few people strewn about the tables inside and by the time we left, there were a couple more of the tables outside of the bar that were filling up. As we walked to our next destination, this part of the city seemed pretty modern with all of the regular retail stores and things of that nature. We got to a place called The Wall, a Blues/Rock bar (Deniz is quite the musician so loves these types of bars) and I can't remember the significance of the bar but it seemed to be pretty busy. After a little bit, I met one of Deniz's high school friends and the three of us chatted for a bit over drinks.

Galata tower

Turkish flag

Walking through the city

Taksim

First Blues bar of the night

Cool painting across from the bar

Second bar of the night

Before I had too many drinks and it got too late, I wanted to make sure I had a mode of transportation back to the Asian side so we finished up at The Wall and went on our way. While we walked towards this area of taxi vans, we passed by this statue that depicted Ataturk, the founder of Turkey, and it seems like he was quite the revered leader. Before I got into the taxi van, I had planned to meet up with Onur and Berk at the drop-off point on the Asian side so I was all set to go. I didn't try to talk to anyone in the van because none of them understood English and I don't speak Turkish so I spent my time listening to the rest of the passengers chitchat. When I got to the stop that Onur told me to get off, I stood around for awhile hoping that no one was going to try to harass me and it wasn't before long that I recognized Berk and we all went back to their flat to call it a night.

Walking up to the Ataturk statue

Going back to the Asian side

The mosque at night

It would have been very pleasant sleep except for the fact that the first prayer started at about four in the morning and being neighbors with a mosque made it very easy to hear the dynamic sounds of the prayer that were bursting through the speakers. I'm not quite sure how much more sleep I got before I finally crawled out of bed but it still gave me a good amount of time to figure out where else I should explore before I had to get to the airport in the evening.
After I got all ready, Berk offered to show me around the Asian side so I was glad to have another tour guide for the day and we started the day with a nice big breakfast at a place called Dalik, I believe. I told Berk that I eat everything so he ordered something called Serpme kahvalti which seemed to contain a little bit of everything as he translated things for me as best as he could and I tried to decipher some words on the menu as well. Some other Turkish words I learned before our breakfast came was evet (yes) and hayir (no and it's pronounced hayish).
When our breakfast came, there was a spread of what looked like lunch meats and cheeses and veggies and bread so I figured I would just start to pair things together to test out the tastes. It was all pretty good but I just didn't expect this kind of breakfast in Turkey. Of course, it was also paired with the very strong-tasting tea I had the day before. Chatting over breakfast with Berk, I learned that he does sales for either a type of soil or fertilizer and he has a baby girl, among other things. By the time we got to the end of the breakfast platter, I was quite satiated and ready to do some exploring so Berk took me somewhere to get a good view of the city.

Deciphering what would show up on the breakfast platter

Breakfast!

I think the place we went to is called Kisikli in Üsküdar but I'm not quite sure. Regardless, the view was quite vast and beautiful, although there was a bit of cloud cover. From the top, Berk pointed out where the European sides were and pointed out different landmarks as we walked along the perimeter of the park. I really don't think photos can even come close to what I saw with my eyes but I still took a bunch of photos in the hopes that I could capture of the beauty.

I thought this sign told me where we were but apparently it doesn't

European side over yonder

Berk offered to take a photo of me

Selfie with Berk

From this park with the view, we drove to another part of Üsküdar to walk along the water. As we walked along, Berk pointed out the Kis Kulesi, or Maiden's Tower, to me and told me a story about the tower that reminded me of Sleeping Beauty because of the similarity. He also pointed out Topkapi Palace which was home to the Ottoman sultans during their reign. It was really cool how there were pillows and things set up along the side of the water so that people could just hang out. I saw so many people eating this wafer thing that I wanted to try it too but when I bit into it, it gave me the sense of biting into cardboard so needless to say that I wasn't a fan. It was fun to people watch as we walked along the water; there were a few guys who were tying balloons on a line they put into the water and they were kind of setting up a carnival game for people to purchase bullets to test their skill at shooting at the balloons. So many interesting things to see along the water.

Along the water at Üsküdar 

Nice setup to chill by the water

The wafer snack that everyone was eating

Kis Kulesi - Maiden's Tower

Topkapi Palace somewhere over there?

As we made our way away, I had been talking to Ersin, a Couchsurfer who lives in Istanbul, and I figured I would have time to meet up with him so I got him on the phone with Berk and after they figured out a meeting place for Berk to park, we made our way into Kadikoy. When we met up with Ersin, I felt like a kid because Berk and he were discussing something and then I got my things to hang out with Ersin. It was good that we had decided to take all my bags with me from the get-go so that we didn't need to go back to Berk's to get it. The only downside is the part where I have to remember that I make wide turns with my bags or I hit people with them. 

So with the little bit of time I had left before needing to get to the airport, Ersin took me to this waffle place called Kemal Usta Waffles and there were all kinds of toppings to choose from that I just asked Ersin to surprise me. It seemed like no one that I hung out with while in Istanbul would let me pay for things so I still had a good amount of Turkish Lira in my possession that I needed to spend because I don't like having to re-exchange money. Anyway, when the waffles came to our table, Ersin did kind of surprise me because there were all kinds of things on top of my waffle from little crunchy chocolates to fruits to a sort of jam and I'm not even sure what else. It was definitely very sweet but it was a nice treat to finish off my visit to Istanbul. It was nice to talk to Ersin about when he lived in Philly for a few months and what types of craziness he experienced while he was there. Unfortunately, my hometown didn't leave him with the best memories but he seemed like the type of person to brush off those types of things. After waffles, we walked a bit more and hung out by another spot with water and talked over tea. We still had a good amount of time to chat before I decided I wanted to be safe with my timing to get to the airport so Ersin helped me figure out where I needed to go. Ersin walked me to the metro station and after our farewells, I got onto the Marmasay which is the underwater train which I really wished had glass doors so I could see outside but all we had available to us was the little cartoon drawing that showed us we were traveling underwater.

Lots of fruit toppings for waffles

When asking Ersin to surprise me

Cool lanterns outside of Kemal Usta Waffles

Quick selfie with Ersin

It didn't take too long before I got to the airport terminal and since I still had some time and Turkish Lira to spend, I got my last taste of Turkish food and got the flaky pasty meat thing that I got my first day there. So even though my stay in Istanbul was quite short, I was very happy that it ended much better than it started and to have met some good people along the way. This would be the first of many flights to come for the rest of my trip and thus concludes the European portion of my travels. Cairo, here I come!